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Before trial, O.J. charmed America
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Wednesday, November 19, 2003
L.A. story
By Larry Schwartz
Special to ESPN.com
Signature Game
Nov. 18, 1967 - It was No. 1 UCLA vs. No. 4 USC battling for the national championship, Pac-8 title, Rose Bowl bid and Heisman Trophy, all on one Saturday. Simpson was already on his way to All-American status in his first season with Southern Cal. While he started slowly against UCLA, gaining only 11 yards on his first 10 carries, he finished with 177 yards and two touchdowns.
|  | | Nov. 18, 1967: Simpson gained 177 yards and scored two TDs to lift UCLA to a 21-20 win. |
But only one run will be remembered by history. With a dash that was double his uniform double, No. 32 ran 64 yards and became an instant Trojan legend.
UCLA senior quarterback Gary Beban, who will win the Heisman this season, had just thrown his second touchdown pass of the game to give the Bruins a 20-14 lead with 11 minutes remaining at the Los Angeles Coliseum. Simpson, despite being hindered by a throbbing right foot inside a special sponge cover, was up to the challenge.
With the ball on USC's 36, quarterback Toby Page called an audible - 23-Blast - on third and eight. It looked like a five-yard gain as Simpson ran through the left side of his line. Then he veered to the left sideline and it appeared as if he would gain 15 yards. But after receiving a good block, he cut back to the middle of the field, and ran to daylight.
UCLA couldn't catch the 9.4 sprinter. Simpson's breath-taking touchdown lifted USC to a 21-20 triumph. And to an eventual national championship.
Odds 'n' Ends
In 1961, Simpson was cut from a Pop Warner team called the Power Gliders.
On June 24, 1967, Simpson married his 18-year-old high school sweetheart, Marguerite White. They had three children. Their first child, Arnelle, was born on the eve of O.J. winning the Heisman in 1968.
In 1978, Simpson and Marguerite separated, divorcing the next year.
Their youngest child, 23-month-old Aaren, died in a drowning accident at Marguerite's Brentwood house in 1979.
In 1977, Simpson met Nicole Brown, a recent high school graduate who was working as a waitress. They married on Feb. 2, 1985, had two children and divorced in 1992 amid stories of repeated domestic violence.
|  | | Nov. 18, 1967: Simpson is carried off the field after USC's 21-20 win over UCLA. |
USC went 19-2-1 in Simpson's two seasons (1967-68).
Simpson's 1,750-point margin over runner-up Leroy Keyes of Purdue is the largest ever in Heisman balloting.
Glenn Davis, 1946 Heisman winner on the 1968 winner: "O.J.'s the greatest runner in the history of the game. I don't know how he takes such a beating and still runs the way he does."
Only four times has a runner gained at least 250 yards in an NFL game; Simpson has done it twice. He ran for 250 against New England in 1973 and 273 against Detroit on Thanksgiving Day 1976. Walter Payton broke Simpson's record with 275 yards in 1977 and Corey Dillon passed Payton with 277 in 2000.
Simpson holds the NFL record for most games running for at least 200 yards - six.
|  | | Simpson finished his NFL career with 11,236 rushing yards. |
He was the first back to run for at least 100 yards 11 times in a year (1973, 14-game season) when he rushed for 2,003 yards. The Associated Press voted him the league's MVP.
Simpson's teams made the playoffs just once in his 11-year NFL career. In his only postseason game, Simpson rushed for 49 yards on 15 carries and caught three passes for 37 yards (including a three-yard TD) as the Bills were crushed by the Steelers 32-14 on Dec. 22, 1974 in Pittsburgh.
When the Bills traded an over-the-hill O.J. to the 49ers in 1978, they received five draft choices - a No. 1, two No. 2s, a No. 3 and a No. 4.
Simpson averaged 83.2 yards for his 135 regular-season games. In his five prime seasons (1972-76), he averaged 110 yards for 70 games.
Simpson was a broadcaster for "Monday Night Football" from 1983-85.
On Feb. 16, 1999, the court-ordered sale of Simpson's belongings raised $430,000 to help pay off the $33.5 million wrongful death judgment against him in the civil trial. His Heisman Trophy went for $230,000 in the auction.
After becoming the first player to rush for 2,000 yards in a season, Simpson remembers, "I was in the locker room all by myself right before the game ended. I started walking around thinking how I couldn't wish to do anything more or be anyone else. I was part of the history of the game. If I did nothing else in my life, I'd made my mark."
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